Pillow



July 19, 1966 M. A. sLocUM 3,261,035

' PILLOW Filed April 1e, 1964 United States Patent O M 3,261,035 PILLOW Marian A. Slocum, R.D. 2, Cohocton, N.Y. Filed Apr. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 360,241 Claims. (Cl. 5-338) This invention relates to a pillow, and more particularly for a pillow intended for supporting the head of a person wearing hair curlers.

Girls and ladies frequently desire to put the hair up in hair-curlers before going to bed at night (or before lying down for a nap) and to sleep with the curlers in place. With a conventional pillow, having approximately the same supporting resistance over the entire area of the pillow, the pressure of the pillow against the head with curlers in the hair is frequently uncomfortable and can sometimes be sharply painful, depending upon the style of hair curler used, the number and location thereof, the sensitivity of the scalp of the person, and so forth.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a generally improved and more satisfactory pillow, especially designed for supporting a head to which hair curlers are attached, and which will eliminate or greatly reduce the discomfort of wearing the curlers, and reduce breakage of hair caused by excessive pressure of the curler roller against the hair.

Another object is the provision of such a pillow so designed that it can be easily and economically manufactured and sold at a modest price.

A further object is the provision of a pillow having different degrees of resistivity at different edges of the pillow, so that the user can select the edge which is most comfortable.

These and other desirable objects may be attained in the manner disclosed as an illustrative embodiment of the invention in the following description and in the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, in which:

FIG. l is a plan of a pillow according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section taken centrally through the pillow, transversely from one side to the other, approximately on the line 2--2 of`FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section approximately on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1; l

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section taken approximately on the line 4--4 of FIG. l; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary vertical section taken approximately on the line 5--5 of FIG. l.

According to the preferred form of the present invention, the main body of the pillow is made of two layers of plastic foam sheeting, each having a thickness of about one inch to one and a half inches. The bottom layer is shown at 11 and the top layer at 13. The two layers are preferably of square shape, of any convenient size from about fourteen inches to eighteen inches square, the edges being tapered or beveled and fastened to each other all the way around the marginal edges on all four sides as at 15. This fastening can be by means of adhesive applied to the edges, or by means of any suitable solvents known in the foamed plastics art, applied briefly to the edges of the bottom and top layers 11 and 13 so that the edges will stick to each other when the solvent evaporates, or by means of heat sealing.

A round hole 21 is cut in the top layer 13, centered with respect thereto. This hole 21 may have any desired size convenient for the size of the head which is to be supported by the pillow, for example a diameter of about five or six inches for a pillow intended for a child, or about nine inches for a pillow for a head of an adult, or larger if unusually large curlers are worn. Such a hole may, of course, be formed in a pillow or normal bed size.

3,Z6l,035 Patented `Fully 19, 1966 ICC There is no padding or stuffing within the pillow (between the bottom and top layers 11 and 13) at one side of the central opening 21, this side without internal stuffing or packing being the upper side when viewed as in FIG. l. On two other sides of the hole 21, being the right and left sides when viewed as in FIG. 1, there are pieces 23 of padding or stuffing, preferably in the form of strips of foam plastic material similar to the main bottom and top layers 11 and 13, and conveniently of about the same thickness or slightly less thickness. These strips 23 extend parallel to their respective adjacent side edges of the pillow, and are slightly shorter than the internal length of the side of the pillow, and slightly narrower than the space from the inner edge of the hollow pillow structure to the adjacent edge of the central hole 21.

On the fourth side of the hole 21, being the bottom side thereof when viewed as in FIG. l, there is a padding or stufiing member 25 which is preferably considerably thicker than the padding pieces 23, so that this side of the pillow hasgreater resistance to compression in the direction of the thickness of the pillow, or may be said to be firmer on this side of the pillow. Conveniently, but not necessarily, the padding 25 on this thicker side is formed from the material cut out of the hole 21. This will be, of course, originally in the form of a circular disk of the foarned plastic material from which the top layer 13 of the pillow is made, and this circular disk of plastic is preferably rolled =up in somewhat spiral fashion as seen in FIGS. 2 and 5, and held in place by adhesive material or by suitable solvents or by heating to cause the surfaces of the rolled material to stick to each other and to the adjacent parts of one or both of the bottom and top layers 11 and 13. The padding pieces 23 are likewise fastened, by heat or adhesive or otherwise, to one or both of the bottom and top layers.

The plastic structure thus far described is placed within a fabric pillow case, the bottom fabric layer of which is indicated at 31, and the top fabric layer 33 is made with a cup-shaped pocket with side walls 35 and a bottom wall 37, having suitable conventional seams (not shown) joining the bottom wall to the more or less cylindrical side wall 35, and joining the side wall 35 to the main top wall 33 of the fabric. The edges of the fabric layers 31 and 33 are* preferably sewn together along three sides, sufficiently tightly so that the plastic foam pillow fits rather snugly therein, and is kept therein by providing a conventional slide fastener or Zipper fastener 39 along the fourth side of the fabric layers 31 and 33, the usual conventional operating tab or handle of the slide fastener being shown in FIG. 1 at 41.

In use, the person having the curlers in her hair lays her head on the pillow in such a position that the curlers on the underside of her head (that is, the underside when the head is lying on the pillow) are received in the pocket formed by the central hole in the top wall of the pillow. The head is then supported by the portion of the pillow forming the rim or margin of the central hole 21. It is found in practice that it is possible to make slight adjusting movements of the curlers to such an extent that the majority of curlers on the lower side of the head will be in central aperture of the pillow, and the head can Ibe placed in a position where the pillow adequately supports the head but does not cause uncomfortable pressure of the curlers against the scalp.

Because of the difference in padding or stuiing within the pillow, on the four sides of the pillow, three possibilities are available to the user. If the user desires little support for her neck as distinguished from support of the head itself, the neck is placed over the side of the pillow shown at the top of FIG. 1, where there is no internal stuffing, and so there will be little upward pressure on the neck as distinguished from the head. If the user desires moderate support of the neck, the neck is placed over one or the other of the edges of the pillow which are shown at the right and left sides of FIG. l, where the padding or stuffing layers 23 increase the thickness of the pillow `at these points s-o as to produce moderate support of the neck, in addition to the support of the head itself by the portion of the pillow immediately around the opening 21. If the user desires a more firm support of the neck, the neck is placed over that edge of the pillow which is shown at the bottom of FIG. l, where the roll 25 of material has considerably greater thickness than the pads 23, and thus provides a m-ore firm support for the neck.

Actual use of a pillow in accordance with this disclosure has demonstrated that it is extremely comfortable and satisfactory to most users desiring to sleep or rest while wearing hair curlers.

Whenever necessary, the slide fastener 41 can be unfastened, the plastic pillow structure can be taken out of the pillow case, and the pillow case can be laundered, after which the plastic pillow structure is inserted in the case agaln.

It is seen from the foregoing disclosure that the objects and purposes of the invention are well fulfilled. It is to be understood that the foregoing disclosure is given by way of illustrative example only, rather than by way of limitation, and that without departing from the invention, the details may be varied within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A pillow for use by persons wearing hair curlers, comprising two separate layers of thick resilient foamed material, the lower layer being substantially continuous throughout the area of the pillow, the upper layer having a large central hole therein of suicient size to underlie the major part of the area of a human head laid thereon, and a pillow case covering the outer surfaces of said 4layers of foamed material, the part of the case which covers the upper layer of foamed material having a cuplike pocket extending into said central hole in said upper layer.

2. A pillow for use by persons wearing hair curlers, comprising two separate layers of thick resilient foamed material of approximately square outline, the two layers being permanently fastened to each other around their marginal edges and being not directly fastened to each 4other throughout at least a substantial part of their area 'within the fastened marginal edges, the upper layer having a large central opening adapted to relieve pressure on a substantial part of the area of a human head laid on the pillow so that hair curlers worn on such human head may be received in said central opening without causing discomfort to the wearer, and padding within the pillow between said two layers and located between certain of the marginal edges of the pillow and the adjacent part of the edge of said central opening.A

3. A construction as dened in claim 2, wherein the padding between one marginal edge and the central opening is of substantially different thickness than the padding between another marginal edge and the central Opening.

4. A construction as defined in claim 2, wherein the padding between two opposite marginal edges and the central opening is of substantially the same thickness, the padding between a third marginal edge and the central opening is of substantially greater thickness, and there is substantially no padding between a fourth marginal edge and the central opening.

5. A pillow for use by persons wearing hair curlers, comprising two separate layers of thick resilient foamed material of approximately square outline, the two layers being permanently fastened to each other around their marginal edges and being not directly fastened to each other throughout at least a substantial part of their area within the `fastened marginal edges, the upper layer having a large central opening adapted to relieve pressure on a substantial part of the area of a human head laid on the pillow so that hair curlers worn on such human head may be received in said central opening without causing discomfort to the wearer, padding of one .thickness between said two layers in the area between one marginal edge of the pillow and the adjacent edge of said central opening, padding of a material greater thickness between said two layers in the area between a second marginal edge of the pillow and the adjacent edge of said central opening, and a pillow case covering the outer surfaces of said layers of foamed material, the part of the pillow case which covers the upper layer of foamed material having a cup-like pocket which extends into and serves as a lining for said central opening.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,861,668 6/1932 Tenny 5-348 2,940,088 6/1960 -Boor 5--338 2,958,769 11/1960 KBounds 5-337 3,118,152 1/1964 Talley 5-338 FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner. A. M. CALVERT, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A PILLOW FOR USE BY PERSONS WEARING HAIR CURLERS, COMPRISING TWO SEPARATE LAYERS OF THICK RESILIENT FOAMED MATERIAL, THE LOWER LAYER BEING SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINUOUS THROUGHOUT THE AREA OF THE PILLOW, THE UPPER LAYER HAVING A LARGE CENTRAL HOLE THEREIN OF SUFFICIENT SIZE TO THE UNDERLIE THE MAJOR PART OF THE AREA OF A HUMAN HEAD LAID THEREON, AND A PILLOW CASE COVERING THE OUTER SURFACES OF SAID LAYERS OF FOAMED MATERIAL, THE PART OF THE CASE WHICH COVERS THE UPPER LAYER OF FOAMED MATERIAL HAVING A CUPLIKE POCKET EXTENDING INTO SAID CENTRAL HOLE IN SAID UPPER LAYER. 